A woman named Neltje Blanchan De Graff Doubleday in 1898 wrote a very popular field guide for the identification of birds. The title was "Bird Neighbors, An Introductory Acquaintance With One Hundred and Fifty Birds Commonly Found in the Garden, Meadows, and Woods About Our Homes."
Here's what to look for when buying a birding guide
Our birding columnist shares his thoughts on what makes a good guide.
For the Minnesota Star Tribune
August 10, 2021 at 11:52PM
It sold 250,000 copies, and birding got its first set of wings.
Many guides have been published since then, improved versions. Shorter names, for one thing. Have questions about which guides to pick from the many available? Here are some answers:
Q: What authors can I choose from?
A: Books by Roger Tory Peterson, David Allen Sibley, Florence Merriam Bailey, the National Audubon Society, Kenn Kaufman, HarperCollins, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, Stan Tekiela (local guy who covers the map), Richard Crossley, National Geographic Society, American Bird Conservancy, Don and Lillian Stokes. You get the idea.
There are a passel of regional, state and specialty books. Bird identification has been a growth industry.
Q: Do I have favorites?
A: Roger Tory Peterson and David Allen Sibley.
Q: Why?
A: Peterson first. He got me started. His book fits in my pockets. His paintings focus on essentials. His text is brief and helpful. The books have checklists. They cost $19.99.
Peterson moved the vireo species out of its taxonomic position in the flow of the book to sit beside warblers because he felt similarities in plumage might require easy comparison. That's unique, smart and considerate.
Same can be said for his signature page of "confusing fall warblers," the migrants that have shed their distinguishing spring colors. Peterson wanted to help any way he could.
Sibley: For me, the primary desk reference. Larger, lifelike illustrations and more of them, additional helpful text. (But it doesn't fit in my pocket.)
Q: Anything else?
A: Both of these authors provide added value with sets of drawings that explain the topography of birds. Peterson began using his indicator arrows in his first book in 1932. They remain, pointing to the salient plumage characteristics that help define each bird. The arrows say, "Look at this."
Sibley has pages of drawings that illustrate and define bird parts and plumages. Where are lores? What are scapulars? These terms are used in the descriptive text accompanying each set of illustrations. Good to know.
Q: Most books have introductions. Should I bother?
A: Yes. Read the introductions and any other text offered. It's there to make life easier. This can be considered homework. Do your homework. Each bird is a test.
Q: Are you saying that the other books lack usefulness or value?
A: No, no. no. There is value in each, beauty being in the eye of the book holder. At the bookstore, touch them all. I think buying guide books online is misguided. These are very individual purchases. Try them on first.
Q: Is there reason to own more than one?
A: I have one for the field and one for my desk. And one in my car. And my wife has one of her own, favoring National Geo.
Q: You haven't mentioned maps.
A: An oversight for certain. Range maps are best larger than most you see. Pages are smaller than designers wish. Maps are a compromise. They do the job. Squinting helps.
Q: Do these books ever go out of date?
A: I still use my 1961 edition of the Peterson guide. Names change, but the birds don't. Distribution changes, to become more of a problem as climate hurries along.
About names: Sometimes an official ornithological committee for scientific reasons changes a name. One species is determined to be two, for example, and a new name is needed.
And then there is the current effort to rid the list of eponyms, names given to recognize or honor a person, McCown's longspur, for example.
Because of McCown's association with racism we now know the bird as thick-billed longspur. McCown was an ornithologist who became a Confederate general.
More than 100 North American birds have been suggested by some people as candidates for name change for similar reasons or to just get rid of eponyms.
Thick-billed longspur, by the way, is not a good name. Thicker than what?
Lifelong birder Jim Williams can be reached at woodduck38@gmail.com.
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